Business Branding:
Every successful entrepreneur and business has a BRAND, The one thing you must have if you want to be successful is Branding that is consistent with you and your business.
Branding gives you credibility and separates you from your competition. Branding is what makes people tell other people about you, and makes them want to invest and buy from you again and again. Without branding, businesses cannot survive.
It is important to be visible to your customers. Your Visibility is more important than your ability. To increase your Branding visibility, it is important to improve the recognition of your business. People need to know who you are, remember you, prefer to buy from you and refer other people to you. There are major advantages of Branding are
“People know your name, they prefer to use you when possible, they will only buy your product or service, they tell other people about you”.
A strong Logo and a strong Slogan make your business more memorable. Your brand is whatever people’s first impression is of you. It should be consistent, congruent (your business should be in line with your Brand), should be creating loyal clients, and making them feel they are getting value invoking an emotional experience.
Things to Consider while building a Brand:
- Profitability – will it help you become profitable
- Marketability – is it something you can Market
- Credibility – is it Credible
- Visibility – how will you make it visible
- Invisibility – you need to ensure you stand out and you are not invisible
- Instability – does it invoke stability
Considerations:
- Personal Branding (remember it is a representation of yourself)
- Brand Association (Brand your business so it is congruent with your Branding)
- Brand Innovation (is it different and innovative)
- Brand Credibility (is it credible so it is perceived as positive by your prospects)
- Branding is difficult to do
- Each time a client buys or invests in you, you have correctly Branded yourself
- Branding is a Creative Art
- Branding requires presentation, persuasive selling, and negotiation
- When a person is Branded they create their mark
- Analyzing your prospective client’s motivation to buy is key to building your Brand
- Branding by message control – Be sure that you control the message you are putting out.
People will buy the brand rather than the product. Your reputation is linked directly to your Brand. i.e Labeled Handbags, Clothing, Shoes, Coffee shops, Restaurants, and more.
People do business with you not because you have the best product but because they like and trust you. This is something you cannot buy. People don’t buy car insurance they buy security. Branding gives people a sense of security.
It’s important to understand the primary and secondary influences.
a. Primary – reasons they buy without thinking
b. Secondary – these are excuses and reasons people rationalize why they shouldn’t buy
All buying decisions are emotional, rarely logical. People will invest logically but buy emotionally. Your Branding needs to set up the framework to match this.
You need to understand the left versus the right brain decision-making. Left brains think rationally, numbers, etc. the right brain person thinks artistically and creatively (45% left brain, 45% right brained and 10% both) Build your Brand so it appeals to both left and right brained people – it will be your key to success.
Find the emotional red button that would make people buy your product or service and build your brand around it. The best way to do this is to create surveys so you are asking your prospective customer directly.
6 Ways to Brand yourself:
1. Achievement
2. Association
3. Authoring a book
4. Reciprocation
5. 3rd Party recognition
6. Charitable donation
7. Always under-promise and over-deliver
For proper Business Branding, all your signage, websites, stationery, business cards, and everything in your business should reflect your logo and slogan and have the same colors and text so they are uniform and people will remember you. It is best NOT to use your name. Launch then link all elements of your business and any other businesses you have to that Brand. There should be congruency throughout your business so everything relates to everything else.
Appearance is also a key element, you should dress according to the type of business you are in, and the type of image you wish to portray. Remember your appearance reflects your business, so dress accordingly in congruence with your business. Use email addresses that reflect your business, preferably the same email address as your website rather than Hotmail, Gmail, etc. Before using your first name in email addresses consider that first names in email addresses tend to indicate a small company. If you are looking to appear as a big company uses something more corporate.
It isn’t easy to build and concentrate on these things when you are busy managing your business.
That’s where Business branding consultants like ” Progressio” come in. We study your business and prepare plans and strategies to improve your business branding. We have helped many clients achieve profits with our plans and strategies. Book a free consultation with us on how we can develop your business, Click here.
